[Sca-cooks] Looking for some recipe help

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Brother Selewine wrote:
>I am preparing the 12th Night feast for my Barony in January with 
>the theme that "All Rods Lead to Byzantium" I am looking to prepare 
>a feast of 30 items .as we are celebrating our 30th anniversary. My 
>cunning planis to prepare 3 removes each representing some different 
>culture or region that would have been found in Constantinople.

Will you be having only one course with three removes? After all, a 
remove is a dish that is served then removed within one course. Or 
will you actually be serving three courses?

>I have chosen India, Greece and the Middle East for my areas. I am 
>looking for some items to add to my menu, particularly some period 
>chutney or relish recipes from India and some Greek Savouries.

 From your description it sounds like you are using modern recipes. Is 
my interpretation correct? Or are you looking for historical recipes 
from the time covered by the SCA? If historical, are you focusing on 
a particular time period?

For Greek recipes, i recommend the famous Apician cookbook and/or 
Anthimus. There are no surviving purely Byzantine cookbooks. Dalby's 
book has no historic recipes, and Marks's book has a limited number 
of not always plausible recipes.

>I have already 6 dessert items from the Miiddle East including 
>Iranian, Jewish and a couple that just seem to be found all over the 
>region.

I know of no SCA period Jewish desserts. Where did you find them?

>Don't wotty about complexity in the recipes, I have been cooking for 
>30 years so am not afraid to tackle anything. My biggest concern is 
>items that can be prepared ahead as the event kitchen sucks so I 
>have to prepare almost everything ahead.

You may also be interested in some Turkic dishes, since the 
Byzantines spent a lot of time warring and negotiating with the 
Seljuk Turks, and later the Ottoman Turks. Alas, the Seljuks left us 
no cookbooks that i know of. I do have some 15th and 16th c. Ottoman 
recipes, from after the fall of Constantinople.

For India, although it is after the fall of Constantinople, there is 
the Ain-i Akbari,  the third volume of the Akbarnamah, written by 
Shaikh Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak in Persian, circa 1590. There are 
several sections on foodstuffs, including one with recipes. Here is 
the translation into English by H. Blochmann, begun in 1873, and 
completed by Colonel H. S. Jarrett in 1907.
http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=00702051&ct=0

His Grace, Duke Cariadoc, has worked out four of the recipes: Bread; 
Sag, a spinach dish; Qutab or Sanbusa, similar to modern meat Samosa; 
and Khichri, sometimes called Kedgeree today, a dish of rice and mung 
dal.
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Recipes_Done.html

However, i'm not sure why you've chosen India as in a close 
relationship with Byzantium.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita